Battery life is one of the most significant metrics of mobile device performance, with consumer demands increasing despite newer features consuming even more power than before. While battery technology and capacity have improved as well, larger displays and more demanding applications/hardware threaten to enable power consumption to outpace storage improvements. As such, optimization of existing features to reduce their power overhead is particularly advantageous. These optimizations may take the form of increasing efficiency of hardware components or reducing unnecessary computations in software.
The major power consumption “culprits” in modern devices typically are the display (depending upon brightness settings), the CPU, and the various wireless antennae. While these components have realized substantial efficiency improvements over the years, the antennae in particular have mainly achieved this via efficient power state switching (i.e., turning them off when not in use).
Relatively minor changes in orientation and/or position of an antenna of a mobile communication device can have significant impacts on performance, particularly signal strength and power consumption. As many antennae included in modern mobile devices are polarized “vertically,” their performance is usually closer to optimal when a mobile device is “standing up” (e.g., with the antenna perpendicular to ground). As mobile devices are often left face-up or face down on/in desks, tables, etc., wireless communication systems of modern mobile communication devices are often performing under sub-optimal conditions. This can result in surprising losses of efficiency, leading to, e.g., reduced battery life, increased heat emission, etc.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.